Laptopozaurus Ordinaris
Sasha | 10:28 pm | December 29, 2007 | Laptop History
We usually like to search the web for new amazing and stylish laptops that impress our imagination with innovative features and new technology. The progress of today is astonishing indeed. But looking back into the past can be even more exciting at times.
The first laptop in the world, GRiD Compass 1100, was the brainchild of Bill Moggridge, British industrial designer; it is now 28 years old, dating back to 1979.
Just imagine the memory of 340 Kbytes and a 320×200-pixel display. The laptop could run its own operating system GRiD-OS. The design was a break-through, with the screen that could fold flat when closed.
In addition, the laptop boasted the weight of a little over 5kg, which was like having your ski boots made of swan feathers, by today’s standards.
But unfortunately the laptop wasn’t so popular among public with the price of almost £5000, and the main buyers were the US Government and NASA.
Laptop Bones, Mascara, and a Chewing Gum
Christine | 8:16 pm | December 25, 2007 | Laptop Bags
You don’t see a bikini here, do you. You can’t see sun lotion, a beach
Unlike sun seekers who don’t need much to take with them, all of us busy with
Source: Scooba Design
3 Screens And a Strawberry Margarita
maksim | 12:52 am | December 22, 2007 | New Laptops
If there was a New American Dream, a dream of e-generation, what would that be like? What do we, people that are free of sex and family constraints of 20th century, are able to travel around the world, and are financially independent from young years, want? A mortgaged house in suburbs, a strong family, a stable job, a car? We, kids of postmodernism, would rather print that on our toilet paper.
We are the victims of choice. We are too spoiled with alternatives. We don’t want a house because we don’t want to settle in one place and instead we travel more. We don’t want a family because we want to spend as much of our Me Time on ourselves as possible. Just being together, being committed to a person is hard for us, with sexual freedom reaching new heights every day. And we don’t want a stable job because with so many alternatives around we are constantly looking for a better one, preferably with us in charge.
And, speaking of a decent job, we don’t want an ordinary-looking office either. A bungalow on the coast of west
Source: Acme Portable
The Beauty vs The Beast
maksim | 4:18 am | December 21, 2007 | New Laptops
Two extremes of the same territory, two laptops that could not be further away apart- today we compare Asus Eee PC and Getac A790- the Snow White and the Terminator of the laptop world.
Difference starts with the price. Asus Eee Pc is famously the cheapest laptop in the world, with the price of 200 dollars. Getac costs 30 times more, just below 6000 dollars.
Small and light, Eee Pc has a processor to match, Intel Celeron-M 900MHz. Getac, in spite of its seemingly awkward shapes, has an impressive Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz.
Elegantly small 4gb harddrive of Eee Pc is not prepared to waste its space on something as unglamorous and time-wasting as movies or games. Getac, a road warrior, has shock-resistant 80gb, and options for more if needed.
For wireless connectivity, Eee Pc has WiFi, simple and effective, job done. Getac is a jungle kid and WiFi can never be enough- it also has Bluetooth, GPS, and a GSM/GPRS support.
Never meant to leave civilization for too long , Asus has a reasonable battery life lasting over two hours. Getac, a companion of night shifts and field trips, has a maximum possible battery life of around eight hours.
Graceful Eee Pc has a webcam on its list of additional features, and that is all it needs. Getac wants much more. Fingerprint scanner, optional touchscreen and sunlight readable display, dustproof keyboard, fully waterproof case with sealed ports and connectors, vibration resistance and extra strong magnesium alloy case.
Sources: Asus Eee Pc and Getac A790
Cubicle Cucumbers, Drum!
maksim | 1:18 am | December 20, 2007 | Laptop Music
Imagine a stranger looking at you from the side as you are reading this. Looking at you, a hunched, silent, unmoving figure in front of a panel of plastic. Take the monitor, the furniture, your clothes away, and you start to look like an overgrown vegetable hidden away from sunrays in a cellar.
How do you fight this vegetable state? You need something involving physical activity, reasonably addictive to keep you going, yet short enough not to distract you too much. Obviously, nicotine is a perfect choice. But what about us, non-smokers?
How about a drum machine? Small, portable, easy to hide, easy to unhide. Compatible via USB with any laptop. Silent, if you use headphones. It may not be suitable for an office cubicle, as you will look daft, jumping silently up and down while hitting your desk with two sticks. But for a home office, why not? Surely not much worse than shower singing.
Source: Gadgets Club
Second Skin For Your Laptop
Boris | 1:04 am | December 19, 2007 | Laptop Mods
A snake about to shed its skin is referred to as being “in the blue”. A laptop that has its lid painted in boring greyish factory colours is known as being “in the grey”. And just as it is necessary for a snake’s health to shed it skin, it is vital for any self-respecting laptop to get a custom design lid cover.
With minimum effort, you can give new look to your good old laptop and set yourself apart from the crowd. If it doesn’t sound like much, you can brand it with your corporate logo or initials.
There are several companies doing laptop skins, but Irish venture Aspoke.com seems to be the main one on this side of the Pond. The contrast between technology and nature is what makes these skins so amazing to look at.
Source: Laptopskins.net
Citius, Altius, Fortius!
Christine | 4:22 am | December 18, 2007 | USB Flash Drives
When ancient Greeks engraved these three words – Citius, Altius, Fortius – on the main entrance to the Ancient Olympic Games, they probably didn’t expect them to be used to such an extent they are these days. Technology has picked up the motto and new records are set quicker than ever before.
Today, the time lag between technology of a schoolboy game console and a NASA computer is no more than a couple of years. And the gap is getting smaller. Already, we expect our TVs to be slimmer than the chances of snow in
Source: Akihabara News
A Chicken In A Wallet
maksim | 4:59 am | December 16, 2007 | USB Stuff
Chopping things in halves, technology moves on. For an electronic device, being sleek and trendy is like being a fruit fly- you are dead before the time the sun sets. Piled up with brothers and sisters, you are not even given a chance to be forgotten after death- you are recycled the next morning, your plastic body having more value than your empty soul.
Fighting back, devices take shapes that fool human eyes. They aim for classic, well-known, timeless structures. Morph into things that people are familiar with, both in size and shape. Natural selection in a synthetic world.
A USB drive in shape of a business card that goes perfectly into a wallet is a perfect example. In the world of USB drives it is like being taken to a zoo if you are a chicken- the chances are you will still end up in a soup, but your life will be a warm and comfortable one.
Source: www.walletex.com
Four Mouse Pads and a Wedding
maksim | 12:13 am | December 15, 2007 | Mouse Pads
There are things in life that you are only supposed to buy once. A wedding ring. A place at a cemetery. A ticket to
There are also things that you are supposed to buy once, but in fact you either never buy them at all or buy new ones all the time. A wine opener comes to mind. Or a computer mouse pad.
And if you are the type of person that preferred a table surface instead, or worse, a laptop touchpad, well, try to resist now. Tucano, an Italian company, knows what it takes to make us want a new mouse pad. We have selected a few, leaving a hundred more behind.
Brown Macbook, Anyone?
maksim | 3:21 am | December 14, 2007 | Laptop Mods
In the
When it comes to laptops, there are three accepted colours: black, silver and white. Anything else is considered bad taste, apart from pink, which can go down well with female law students on high heels and in company of a tiny dog. Laptop manufacturers realise that there ARE people willing to buy khaki, maroon, or peach-coloured laptops, but never actually produce them in fear of losing money if they don’t get the colour combination right for the public eye.
Colorware, a US-based company, is on a mission to blow the world of laptops up with colour. A laptop can be customised online using special online painting tool, and then ordered directly from the company. And, as well as selling new, they also repaint used laptops. The only drawback is the limit of brands they can do- at the moment only Apple and some of IBM.
A brown Macbook Pro, anyone?
Source: Colorware